SLEEPY EYE — Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s played solidly throughout the match, winning 25-17, 21-25, 25-22, 25-23 over Granada Huntley East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther in a Tomahawk Valley Conference crossover volleyball match on Tuesday.
Throughout the game, St. Mary’s consistently varied its shots on net – long, quick and back – to confuse the Jaguars’ blockers.
“I thought we did a good job, especially in Game 1.” “We’re excited to be a part of it,” Saint Mary’s University head coach Kari Hoffman said. “We’ve been working on that a lot in practice, so I think it’s showing what we’re working on in practice. The guys are doing a good job of getting forward and blocking. Hopefully we can continue to do well.”
GHEC/T/ML head coach TJ Williams was also impressed with St. Mary’s front line, noting that the Jaguars haven’t seen St. Mary’s play the way it has in a while.
“They’re making a lot of moves around the net that you don’t see a lot of in our conference.” Williams said. “It’s kind of tough when your blockers are moving in all different directions, looking for someone to block. We did a good job, but it’s still an area we need to improve on.”
Williams added that the Jaguars made too many mistakes during the game that cost them the win.
“We got more out of this tonight than we usually do.” He said. “But volleyball is a sport of mistakes. The team that makes the fewest mistakes wins. We felt like we made the fewest mistakes.”
Kylie Nelson led the Knights with nine kills while Morgan Maciowetz had eight kills, 13 digs and four aces. Josie Helget had 17 set assists and eight digs, Natalie Fisher had 15 digs and four aces. Brynn Iverson had 12 set assists.
For GHEC/T/ML, Londyn Bowers had 11 kills and two blocks and Madisen Lewis had three kills and one block. Keira Benk and Terin Dengler each had three kills.
Nelson’s blocks helped St. Mary’s jump out to an early 7-3 lead in Set 1. The Jaguars struggled to overcome the Knights’ blocks in the set, with Nelson getting some quick strong kills.
“We work hard in practice, give it our all and then it shows on the court.” Nelson said. “I just have to keep practicing on the court, doing my best and working hard.”
A spike from Nelson gave St. Mary’s a 14-8 lead, and the teams were neck and neck from then on, with St. Mary’s winning on a block by Amelia Schwartz.
The Jaguars jumped out to an early lead in the second set, taking an 8-3 advantage on a kill from Nora Chase. St. Mary’s called a timeout, but GHEC/T/ML held on to an 18-11 lead. After a long point, Reese Hoffman got a kill to start a 9-2 run to tie the score, but the Jaguars held on with a kill from Bowers to win 25-21.
The teams were deadlocked early in the third set, with St. Mary’s leading 11-9, before GHEC/T/ML went on a 4-0 run to take a 13-11 lead.
During the run, St. Mary’s setter Iverson was hit hard in the face by the ball and had to leave the game. Despite the injury, St. Mary’s fought through and earned a narrow 25-22 victory on a powerful kill by Maciowetz.
“I think in a way they were also playing for our daughter, who was hurt.” Coach Hoffman said. “They wanted to win for her because they were so sorry about what happened. They were able to go through with it because they were so sorry about what happened.”
In the fourth set, St. Mary’s gradually built a lead to 14-8 on a block by Amelia Schwartz and a kill by Nelson. The Jaguars took a timeout and fought back to tie the score at 20-20 on blocks by Kayla Mattson and Bowers. On the next point, Fisher made a key dig, but a long battle ended with an error by the Jaguars and GHEC/T/ML took the lead, this time on a block by Addison Nowicki, as St. Mary’s took a timeout at 22-21. St. Mary’s won four of the next five points and a kill by Maria Schwartz sealed the win, 25-23.
St. Mary’s (10-4) will travel to Gibbon Fairfax Winthrop on Thursday, while GHEC/T/ML (11-5) will host Mankato Loyola on Thursday.
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